Cheap and easy EKET shelf inserts. No cutting required.

Use this other IKEA item to make inserts for your EKET shelves.

While building an EKET wall on my home office, I noticed that IKEA does not have versions with internal shelves.

I checked IKEA Hackers and found a hack that involved making holes and cutting MDF plates.

However, I wanted a more straightforward solution and found it by chance while browsing around the store!

I noticed the VARIERA family has metal shelf inserts that are exactly 32cm / 12 5/8 ” wide, and that is the EKET internal width.

I took a sample at the store and tested it on an EKET displayed there; it matched perfectly.

EKET shelf with insert
EKET shelf with insert

But I was not satisfied, because the legs of the shelf would not look particularly good when shown on the glass doors. I bought some sets to test home anyway.

EKET shelf and VARIERA inserts — a match!

When I got home, I was surprised to see they fit really tight. (I almost thought I had made a mistake).

EKET shelf inserts

However that was actually a blessing in disguise — they fit so tight that I did not need to mount the legs on them!

Just needed a bit of brute force to position them in the correct place. I am just displaying some action figures on them, so they are not bearing a lot of weight.

display

If you want to be sure they will not fall, you can just drill some holes on the EKET, under the inserts. Then, mount a wooden peg (or even use the included VARIERA screws).

Or of course, you can also install the VARIERA legs, but I do not think they look good.

The VARIERA shelves are sold in 2 depths: 13cm / 5″ depth, or 28cm / 11″ depth. Just pay attention to the depth of your EKET, the bigger shelf will not fit on the 25cm / 9″ deep EKET. 🙂

I am also including here a photo of my complete home office; I think everything on it came from IKEA, asides from the figures and books – even the plants 🙂

home office

The desk is made of PLATSA units with BESTÅ legs (NANNARP) and ÖSTERNÄS handles and 2 of the longest LINNMON table tops.

We removed the back of one of the PLATSA units to fit my fiancee’s gaming PC and hide the cables.

On my side I use a SIGFINN laptop stand; it is perfect, as I change between PC and Mac and I can just hide the other laptop/keyboard under it. 

So there you have it, super easy and cheap Eket shelves! I bet this will be of help for other people. 🙂

~ by Daniela Farias, Norway

Jules Yap